St. Louis Cardinals’ Lars Nuba (26), who won the World Baseball Classic (WBC) with Japan’s national team, talked about the moment he first met San Diego Padres’ Darvish Yu (37). 

Nutba is an outfielder with a batting average of 20% (2 hits in 10 at-bats), 메이저사이트1 home run, 2 RBIs, and an OPS of 1.056 in 4 games this season. It is difficult to see him as a clear major league outfielder yet, but he is showing a steep growth trend. In the WBC held in March, he participated as the Japanese national team and recorded an OPS of .693 with 4 RBIs, 7 runs, 2 steals, 7 hits in 26 at-bats, and a batting average of 2.69 in 7 games. 

Nutba, who was selected as the national team for the first time in the history of the Japanese baseball team without Japanese nationality, appeared on an American podcast program on the 17th (Korean time) and introduced an anecdote about playing for the Japanese national team. Darvish, who has become a veteran ace in the major leagues, was cited as the player who helped him the most. 

Nutba, who confessed that when he first met Darvish, “I don’t know why, but my body was shaking,” he said, “Because we have the same agent, before going to Japan, I asked various questions through my agent. The agent told me that Darvish was a player he could rely on because he was his senior. When he first met Darvish, he had the idea that he had to make a good impression. But he came up first and spoke to me in perfect English,” recalling his first meeting with Darvish. 

Nutba said, “Darvish said, ‘If you need anything, let me know. That’s cool. He said hello to Darvish for the first time and felt that he could take it one step further.”

The meeting with Shohei Ohtani (Angels), the best star in the major leagues, also left a deep impression on Nutba. Nuthba said, “No matter how many nice things I say about Ohtani, it’s not enough. Ohtani also approached me first. He was moved by his warm heart. Seeing such a superstar act modestly, he was so cool.